The present invention relates primarily to a portable, one-piece screen printing frame for amateur and professional use, to quickly and inexpensively, manually print in an off-contact manner onto a substrate, such as fabric, paper, glass, metal, wood, or other items.
There are many low-tech techniques that have been used for many years to stretch mesh over a frame. These include the use of adhesives, staples, tacts, and other fastening devices. While these methods are commonly used, and typically of lower cost, they often take relatively more time and often yield inconsistent results, if not also interfering with the proper use of the stencil, and its repeat usage, particularly where strong adhesives or other types of fasteners, such as staples, are applied. Hence, these types of stencils often take relatively more time to set up, and use, and quite often yield inconsistent results. Also, they are relatively expensive.
Additionally, the storage of screen stencils, as currently used, that are not mounted in a frame, are often problematic as the wet screen stencil films often cling together and to surrounding objects, easily crinkle and fold and subsequently dry in a less than flat or ideal manner. Thus, they are frequently not properly prepared and ready for adequate stenciling usage.
Furthermore, it is currently a common practice in the screen printing industry to use excessive amounts of adhesives in not only constructing a screen, but in taping the perimeter of the screen just before the ink is applied for printing. Screen printers use adhesive tape around the inside edges of the frame, to prevent the applied ink from leaking through any areas that do not have a coating of emulsion hardened on them (i.e. “open” areas of the frame usually around the edges), and/or from ink leaking through the edges of the frame itself.
Screen printers have tried to devise many different ways to tape a screen printing frame and many types of tape have been used and applied. Some printers use packaging tape from office supply stores. Others use duck tape. Also many others use the more expensive solvent-resistant block out tape, which were designed for accommodating screen printing inks.
Many packaging tapes are readily identified as bad news for screens, as these tapes leave gooey residue on the screen and frame. Residue that is difficult to remove. Professional block out tapes normally peal off cleanly from the screen, without leaving adhesive residue, but these types of tapes are quite costly.
Various prior patents have shown related styles of stenciling devices, primarily for industrial and commercial type usage, as distinct from the manual hand held style of stenciling device of this invention. Various types of tensioning mesh onto frames, and numerous frame units have been used and developed. These include the use of relatively complicated constructed equipment, for example, pneumatic, pre-tensioning devices, added materials, primarily for use for fastening, such as clips, tensioning tools, rollers, locking strips, and the like, as well as through the usage of excessive force, which therefore results in relatively more complex and much higher cost frames. Moreover, these commercial grade quality frames are capable of achieving very high-tension screens for printing, although it has been stated that above a certain point, higher tension is not always better for producing quality results, and not always worth the additional time and cost.
A quick summarization of these types of screens, and tensioning systems, can be seen, for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,536,951, to Vasilantone.
The screen tensioning and printing frame of Newman, can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,293. As can be noted, these are far more complex of structure and obviously of higher costs, than the current invention.
A two-part frame and pre-tensioning device therefor is shown in the patent to MacNaughton, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,792.
A further screen printing stencil can be seen in a further patent of Cane, U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,911.
A further self-tensioning silk screen frame can be noted in the United States Patent to Goss, U.S. Pat. No. 6,553,904.
Another tensioning device can be seen in a further patent of Cane, U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,912.
A far more complex stencil holder can be seen in the patent of Fromm, U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,171.
A locking strip panel for silk screen frame can be seen in the patent to Niswonger, U.S. Pat. No. 8,522,681.
The patent to Fantoni, et al, shows the use of a doctor blade upon a cylinder for material coating, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,632,560.
The patent to Chen shows an elaborate commercial screen printing machine in U.S. Pat. No. 7,337,718.
The patent Thomas, et al, shows a multi-frame screen printing device, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,117,787.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,962,111, to Tanaka, et al, shows a screen-printing plate.
The patent Schilling, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,258,445, shows a screen printing form and a flexible screen printing form accommodating device.
The patent Newman Jr., shows a clamping strip and locking channels, apparently for application of a screen printing fabric to a cylinder, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,048.
The patent Gronig, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,528, shows another device for holding tensioned sheet-like material and process for tensioning said material.
The patent to Oozeki, U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,760, shows another screen printing machine.
The patent Mellis, U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,196, shows a device and method for applying patterns and/or labels to a substantially flat surface of an article.
Another wire mesh screen can be seen to Levin, U.S. Pat. No. 2,903,967.
A further adjustable screen printing chase can be seen in the patent to Lambert, U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,216.
A fastening device for use in needle point as in a supporting frame and clip assembly, can be seen in the patent Connors, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,132.
Another screen tensioning apparatus can be seen in the patents to Bubley, U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,772 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,484.
A frame for cloth and artistic canvases can be noted in the patent to Delacroix, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,561.
A device for imprinting an image on a substrate is noted in the patent to Christman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,499.
The patent to Levin, U.S. Pat. No. 2,903,967 also shows a wire mesh screen.
Finally, a gripping device, for flexible sheet material, can be seen in the patents to Hamu, U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,805, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,746.
These are examples of a variety of prior art frames, gripping devices, stretching apparatuses, as known and used in the prior art.